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Researchers
have found two new hormones that seem to influence eating behavior, and
could lead to new treatments for obesity, and help adults with diabetes
control the disease. The hormones, dubbed orexin-A, and orexin-B, are
released by nerve cells in the region of the brain known to play a key
role in appetite. When researchers injected the hormones into the brains
of rats, the animals began eating more. When they starved the animals,
brain levels of the orexin hormones increased.
Finding a way
to prevent or slow the release of the hormones orexin, or blocking the
protein receptors that are sensitive to them could lead to a new way to
control appetitie. The process could also be turned around to encourage
eating in people who have become dangerously thin.
The team is
now is trying to genetically engineer rats that lack one of the orexin
hormones, and both protein receptors to see if the defect affects their
appetites. The newly discovered hormones are two of about a dozen
chemicals in the body known to affect eating behavior, researchers said.
The hormones get their name from the Greek word orexis, which means
appetite.
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